Jump to content

Jugalbandi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 202.88.229.50 (talk) at 05:46, 7 March 2012. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A jugalbandi or jugalbandhi (Devanagari: जुगलबंधी, Urdu: جگلندئ‍) is a performance in Indian classical music that features a duet of two solo musicians. The word jugalbandi means, literally, "entwined twins." The duet can be either vocal or instrumental.

Often, the musicians will play different instruments, as for example the famous duets between sitarist Ravi Shankar and sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, who played the format since the 1940s. More rarely, the musicians (either vocalists or instrumentalists) may be from different traditions (i.e. Carnatic and Hindustani). What defines jugalbandi is that the two soloists be on an equal footing. While any Indian music performance may feature two musicians, a performance can only be deemed a jugalbandi if it is neither clearly the soloist and neither clearly an accompanist. In jugalbandi, both musicians act as lead players, and a playful competition exists between the two performers.

See also